Busoni - Piano Music

Ferruccio Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto Busoni (1866-1924) was born in Empoli, near Florence, Italy.
He was taught by his parents, who were both professional musicians, and made a sensational public debut as a pianist at the age of seven. After holding teaching posts in Helsinki, Moscow and Boston, he settled permanently in Berlin at the age of 28, continuing to travel widely as a performer.
Busoni’s important achievements as a composer were long over-shadowed by the fact that he was generally thought the greatest piano virtuoso after Liszt.
He also made his mark as a respected teacher of both piano playing and composition, and as an editor of Bach’s keyboard music. His thoughts on Bach’s music have been highly influential, although his editions weren’t exactly what we today would call authentic. In spite of his interest in baroque and classical music, Busoni was certainly no backward-looking composer. In his writings he proposes the use of microtonal scales and electronics, and in 1912 he produced his first work “without tonality”, the Second Sonatina. Busoni’s major keyboard work, Contrapuntal Fantasy, is based on the final, incomplete fugue from Bach’s Art of Fugue. It was first published in 1910, and later revised several times.
His Piano Concerto is one of the longest ever written, at least seventy minutes in performance, and makes use of a male choir. This preference for writing long and difficult works has not made Busoni a favourite in concert halls, but through his teaching he influenced 20th century music greatly.
Among his pupils were Kurt Weill, Edgard Varèse and Stefan Wolpe; John Cage and Morton Feldman are among the later composers who have acknowledged his importance.

Piano Sheet music by Ferruccio Busoni to Download

Total pieces by Busoni: 40

Title	Key	Published	Type	Level
Contrapuntal Fantasy	n/a	1912	Piece	8+
Fantasy after J. S. Bach	F Minor	1909	Piece	8+
Transcriptions True or not, the story of Busoni’s wife being introduced at a function as Mrs. Bach-Busoni says a lot about how famous Busoni’s Bach transcriptions were already in his own lifetime. Many concert-goers at the time probably heard many of Bach’s works first in Busoni’s piano arrangements. Busoni spent time and energy on these transcriptions throughout his life, to spread the music that he loved in an era before recordings became readily available. Some of them are fairly straightforward renderings of the original works, while others take plenty of liberties, making use of the particular resources of the modern piano and Busoni’s unique command of it. The transcription of the Chaconne from Bach’s Second Partita for solo violin is one certainly one of Busoni’s real masterpieces, paying a wonderful tribute to Bach’s genius and but also expressing his own unique personality.
Bach: Chaconne for Violin (BWV 1004)	D Minor	1897	Transcription	8+
Bach: Prelude & Fugue for Organ (BWV 532)	D Major	1888	Transcription	8+
Bach: Prelude & Fugue for Organ (BWV 552)	E-flat Major	1890	Transcription	8+
Bach: Toccata and Fugue for Organ (BWV 565)	D Minor	1900	Transcription	8+
Bach: Toccata for Organ (BWV 564)	C Major	1900	Transcription	8+
Bach: Chorale Prelude (BWV 667) no 1	C Major	1909	Transcription	8+
Bach: Chorale Prelude (BWV 645) no 2	E-flat Major	1909	Transcription	8+
Bach: Chorale Prelude (BWV 659) no 3	G Minor	1909	Transcription	8+
Bach: Chorale Prelude (BWV 734a) no 4	G Major	1909	Transcription	8+
Bach: Chorale Prelude (BWV 639) no 5	F Minor	1909	Transcription	8+
Bach: Chorale Prelude (BWV 617) no 6	A Minor	1909	Transcription	8+
Bach: Chorale Prelude A (BWV 637) no 7	A Minor	1909	Transcription	8+
Bach: Chorale Prelude B (BWV 705) no 7	D Minor	1909	Transcription	8+
Bach: Chorale Prelude (BWV 615) no 8	G Major	1909	Transcription	8+
Bach: Chorale Prelude (BWV 665) no 9	E Minor	1909	Transcription	8+
Six Pieces This collection is the second solo piano work by Busoni to bear the Opus number 33, the first being Medieval Figures from 1883. For some reason, having reached Opus number 40 at age 17, Busoni decided to jump back to number 31 and start again from there. As their titles suggest, the first two pieces of the set contrast beautifully – the first serious, heavy and melancholy, the second light, swift and elegant. The fifth piece is a reminder of Busoni’s time in Finland (1888-1889), where he met his wife Gerda Sjöstrand, daughter of a celebrated Swedish sculptor, and began his lifelong friendship with Jean Sibelius.
Schwermut - op 33 no 1	n/a	1896	Piece	8
Frohsinn - op 33 no 2	D Minor	1896	Piece	8
Scherzino - op 33 no 3	C Major	1896	Piece	7
Fantasia in modo antico - op 33 no 4	B Minor	1896	Piece	7
Finnish Ballade - op 33 no 5	C Minor	1896	Piece	7
Exeunt omnes - op 33 no 6	B Major	1896	Piece	7
Elegies With the Elegies from 1907, Busoni’s enters his mature period, leaving behind his earlier romantic approach in favour of a more modernistic one. The set was published just after his important book Toward a New Aesthetic of Music, in which he proposed a number of new paths for the music of the 20th century, such as the use of microtonal scales and electronics. No such radical steps are taken in the Elegies, but nevertheless Busoni himself felt that the Elegies signified “a milestone in my development. Almost a transformation. Hence the title, ’Nach der Wendung [After the Turning]’”. The seventh Elegy, Berceuse, was added in 1909. It is a transcription of Busoni’s own orchestral work Berceuse élégiaque, dedicated to the memory of his mother, who died that year.
Nach der Wendung no 1	n/a	1907	Piece	8+
All'Italia! (in modo napolitano no 2	n/a	1907	Piece	8+
Meine Seele bangt und hofft zu Dir no 3	n/a	1907	Piece	8
Turandots Frauengemach no 4	n/a	1907	Piece	8+
Die Nächtlichen no 5	n/a	1907	Piece	8
Ercheinung no 6	n/a	1907	Piece	8+
Berceuse no 7	n/a	1907	Piece	8
Indian Diary - Book 1 One of Busoni’s harmony students, Natalie Curtis Burlin, eventually became an ethnomusicologist, specialising in Native American tribal songs, which she collected and transcribed with the help of an Edison cylinder recorder and pencil and paper. In 1907, Curtis Burlin published The Indian’s Book, a collection of about 200 songs from 18 North American tribes. During a visit to the United States, Busoni met with his former student and was inspired by her work. Her book became the source for the four piano studies in this collection, and for several other pieces, including a set of Indian Diaries for strings, wind and tympani, and an Indian Fantasy for piano and Orchestra.
Indian Diary no 1	n/a	1915	Study	7
Indian Diary no 2	n/a	1915	Study	8+
Indian Diary no 3	n/a	1915	Study	8+
Indian Diary no 4	n/a	1915	Study	8
Sonatinas Busoni’s Sonatinas form a fascinating collection, showing the wide range of the composer’s ideas and inspirations. The first two are rather experimental works, reflecting Busoni’s contact with Schoenberg – the Second Sonatina was Busoni’s first work “without tonality”. No. 3, composed for the harpsichord, is a suite in a kind of neo-classical style. The fourth Sonatina is a subdued reflection an Christmas, while the fifth is one of the composer’s many reworkings of Bach’s music, this time the Fantasy and Fugue in D minor BWV 905. The final, sixth work in the series is a rather spectacular, Lisztian fantasy using themes from Bizet’s Carmen.
Sonatina no 1	n/a	1910	Sonata	8
Sonatina no 2	n/a	1912	Sonata	8+
Sonatina no 3	n/a	1916	Sonata	7
Sonatina no 4	n/a	1917	Sonata	7
Sonatina no 5	n/a	1919	Sonata	8
Sonatina - Chamber Fantasy from the Opera Carmen by Bizet no 6	n/a	1920	Sonata	8